Sober Not Somber Hour

I hopefully am live. I'm getting some. I had to update the app today, so hoping I'm actually live with y' all. Keep coming. Come in. This is the Sober Not Somber hour with Jen Varale. I'm your host. I am cozy today. It is spring, yet it's chilly. It's chilly. Who else is tired of it being deceptively bright and sunny and you step outside and it's freezing cold. Hey, Rick. Okay, so I am live. That's, that's really encouraging. Thank you for being here. I always start out Sober not Somber hour with my non alcoholic beverage of choice and we're going to get into the combo soon here.

But what I have today is, is this fun. It's called a functional wine alternative and it's by three Spirit out of the uk. I get this supplied to me from the local, the wine company who has an entire non alcoholic portfolio. And this called Sharp. It's bright, crisp and rejuvenating. So I like to pour this while on camera because you can kind of hear a little bit of the buzz and see the color. This one in particular they call liquid sunshine. And I just felt like we all needed a little bit of liquid sunshine today.

Junk food junkie. Good Taco Tuesday, Jen. Yeah, absolutely. Pairs well with tacos. So speaking of alcohol in our society as we know is very ritualistic and that's what I want to chat with you about today is all the rituals that maybe surrounded celebrations and different gatherings as you were growing up. I know. I myself associated this time of the year. Luke. Liquid sunshine with tacos. Done. I associated the springtime of the year with a flipped switch from say a red wine that I might drink in the winter to the gin and tonic of the Minnesota patio season.

And those rituals, I held those close. I have 10 years, just over 10 years of alcohol free living and sobriety. And so what's really interesting is that I coach others now on replacing some of those rituals that are in our culture that we have had lifetimes, decades of experiences coming together around. Pausing for a little. That is amazing. Wow. I'm going to explain what's in it later, but yeah. What are your rituals? End of day, happy hour, Think springtime. What do you have planned this Friday?

Are you gathering with friends? What does that look like? Now I know for me the sauna and Luke knows this has been one of my go to places for the happy hour ritual. And the drink of choice there is either sauna water or just straight up water with electrolytes. Yeah. So as we Think about different rituals associated with springtime. What comes up, what rituals are you thinking about now is the energy tends to pick up a little bit in the spring. And I know for me an active addiction that meant more drinking.

Yeah, not, not a good, good thing to associate with a ritual. So one of the things that I do coach now on is how we can replace some of those things. So this for example, I will highlight three spirits out of the uk. This is how they describe it and their brand. And this is what's the cool thing about non alcoholic beverage brands is they have taglines like rethink the way you drink or Tennyson has sip with intention. So it is possible to just totally replace these rituals with some new really amazing product.

So the feels on this one is they say it's focused invigoration. So it's not just non alcoholic with sugar. It's actually, it's got California poppy, Clary sage and L theanine to sharpen your focus. And it has complex mineral salts from coconut. Key amino acids are vitamin D and they claim it provides the brain with fuel it needs to maintain its flow. I don't know how much of that can be packed in a beverage, I'm not sure. But it is 100% better than consuming poison and alcohol. I mean poison as in ethanol found in alcohol.

And I would say this is true to their claim of it. Crisp, bright and elegant. There's gooseberries in here. Like I don't even know what that is, but it's a light spritz, apple blossom, fermented apricot and lime peel. Like who doesn't want to try this stuff? They're amazing. Has anyone tried any recent non alcoholic beverages that they love and started to replace any rituals? That's really quite good. I would recommend this. So this is three spirit. Again I'll show you the label. You can go grab these at any one of the three bottle shops.

Non alcoholic bottle shops in the Twin Cities if you're local, there's marigold, there is Zero Proof Beverage House and Lucille's in downtown St. Paul. So hop on into one of those. Ask for a sample this glass. So just for reference, like a five ounce glass of wine would be 100, 125 calories. This is going to be 25 calories. So it's also really easy if you are looking to cut back on calories and don't want all the excess sugar. Sugar, these NA options are great. So yeah, so I've been replacing for years different non alcoholic products with what I used to call, you know, my alcoholic gin and tonic ritual.

So I'd encourage you all to, you know, think about that as you're going into some rituals of spring and maybe looking for alternatives. It's entirely possible. And the other cool exciting thing is if you tell your friends and family about it that you're doing this and provide for them, people get really excited. They love trying these new beverages and making it accessible is one thing I love to do. So. Yeah. So there you go. A good choice and cheers. Look at how amazing that looks. You will not miss your alcohol at happy hour.

This will be a wonderful spring season if you can start to replace some of those alcoholic beverages and just drink more mindfully. How about that? Thank you for your time today and maybe I'll see you on a patty Patio happy hour somewhere in Minneapolis soon. I know I cannot wait to frequent. Bye.